Voting Rights Progress

The Supreme Court rolls the clock forward on election law.

Updated June 26, 2013 8:49 p.m. ET

The U.S. has a long and difficult history with racial discrimination, but on Tuesday the Supreme Court marked a milestone worth celebrating when it ruled that a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act has outlived its usefulness. The political left is reacting as if this means a return to Jim Crow, but the ruling is best understood as a sign of the racial progress that progressives claim to believe in.

In a 5-4 decision, the Justices said that the law's Section 4b coverage formula—which requires that nine states and parts of...